The right decision can take our business to success.
That is why more and more companies are investing in Business Analysis teams, in order to analyse data and make decisions.
From the decision to change the business model, define a new strategy to meet sales targets, all the way to redefining a product’s price in order to attract more customers. It all counts.
In fact, it will be our own data that lets us measure the effectiveness of each of the decisions we make.
And, at this point, is where Business Intelligence comes into play.
What is Business Intelligence for?
Business Intelligence is the set of strategies that let us gain knowledge from our business data.
It is made up of different processes (ETL) that gather, cleanse and transform data into structured information in a common place (a data warehouse) ready to be exploited. Through Business Intelligence applications we can analyse and turn data into knowledge.
What is the goal of a Business Intelligence application?
The goal is clear: to answer different business questions in order to improve decision-making.
Each application will be focused on solving different issues. You can find anything from applications that analyse sales to others that uncover customer loyalty or the reason for customer churn.
What is a business question?
These are the questions we ask ourselves in order to evaluate the business at a specific moment. This includes anything from spotting new opportunities to solving problems that have been detected.
Some typical business questions would be:
- Which are the territories where the most sales occur, and why?
- How can I acquire new customers?
- What is the behaviour of the customers who leave for the competition?
- Which products should I offer to each of my customers?
What elements do we need to run a BI project?
To run a Business Intelligence project we need to define three basic elements, which are the following:
- Which business questions will I answer?
- Do I have the data I need? What are the sources?
- Which Business Intelligence tool will I use?
It is essential to define each of these elements. If we fail to define any of them, it will be impossible to develop a successful application.
It is very important to know our own company in order to assess how difficult it will be to obtain all the indicators we want to display. We need to know whether the data is being extracted and what its structure is, so we can develop the application one way or another.
I’ve defined the three elements… now what?
Once you have everything ready, start with the easiest part: get sample data to begin analysing the information you have available.
Start writing down everything you observe, for example:
- How is the information structured? What entities do I have?
- Which fields are mandatory? What is their format?
- How is the information related across the different tables?
- How much historical data is available?
- What is the data reload frequency?
And above all, ask the relevant owners any questions that come up about the data or the different information systems.
Remember that all the knowledge you will need is held by them, and it will also help you define what can be developed in your Business Intelligence application.
How does Qlik Sense help me answer business questions?
Of all the Business Intelligence tools that exist on the market today, Qlik Sense stands out for its ease and speed of implementation, along with a series of features that set it apart from the rest.
Some of its features are:
- Self Service — Users, of any type or skill level, can use the self-service exploration it offers to build their own reports or discover new visualisations that let them analyse the data.
- Keep It Simple — It contains only the options the user needs to carry out data analysis, making development easier and faster.
- Global Smart Search — The search system gives users, easily and intuitively, the freedom to explore the data from any point of analysis, so they can answer business questions in real time.
- Intuitive Smart Visualizations — A redesign of charts to simplify and offer new guidance to less experienced users, as well as to encourage the use of intuition by highlighting the relevant information.
What does a Business Analyst do?
The responsibilities and tasks of a Business Analyst are directly related to what has been explained in this article. In summary:
- Understand the needs and requirements of users and the business.
- Detect possible improvements or problems in the business.
- Analyse the data and the structure of the company’s information systems.
- Develop Business Intelligence applications (in my case with Qlik).
- Help make the best possible decisions.
- Deliver as much value as possible through the analyses that best answer the needs.
- Foster an analytical culture in the company.
In short, Business Intelligence applications will help us answer business questions in order to make decisions that lead us to success.
Is your company involved in Business Intelligence? What are you waiting for? Discover our Business Intelligence consultancy and our Qlik consultancy, or get in touch with Digital Fox Data so we can help you with your projects.